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Macbook

Telp

Telp

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Feb 6, 2007
3,075
25
A friend is looking to purchase a new macbook. He is a switcher, doesnt know much about computers, and i was wondering if it was smart to buy now. I know the product was just updated but it was such a minimalistic update that i dont know if he should wait atleast till WWDC (although they wouldn't bother about the macbooks their i would s uppose.) Anyway, if anyone can give me their advice on whether to buy now or wait it out a bit longer it would be greatly appreciated.
 
Macrumors does have a buyers guide BTW

There are great updates coming:
Santa Rosa
Flash HDs
LED screens
H.264 hardware encoding (possibly)
Speed bumps

But he could be waiting forever for what is 'just round the corner'. I think that now is a good time to buy, unless he desperately wants these features...
 
psychofreak said:
Macrumors does have a buyers guide BTW

There are great updates coming:
Santa Rosa
Flash HDs
LED screens
H.264 hardware encoding (possibly)
Speed bumps

But he could be waiting forever for what is 'just round the corner'. I think that now is a good time to buy, unless he desperately wants these features...
Click to expand...


Yeah i did look at the buyers guide ( i like it too, very informative ) i just wanted to know the views of more people. Although i care about this stuff, he knows nothing about it so i dont think he would care, however if someone were to say, i strong thing that , for example, Flash HDs will be coming out next month at WWDC i would tell my friend to wait. I know thats what i am waiting for. Thanks for your input though, as i said hes ready to buy and i just want to make sure its "safe" for him to do so. Thanks.
 
If he doesn't need a high powered graphics card (gaming, 3d rendering, video encoding, etc.) then the current MacBook is good value, IMHO. If he does need these things, then he should wait for the MBPs to get updated (soon) or wait for a SR MacBook which will probably be in 4 to 6 months time. I suspect Apple did this refresh to tide the MacBook over until it is ready for SR.
 
flopticalcube said:
If he doesn't need a high powered graphics card (gaming, 3d rendering, video encoding, etc.) then the current MacBook is good value, IMHO. If he does need these things, then he should wait for the MBPs to get updated (soon) or wait for a SR MacBook which will probably be in 4 to 6 months time. I suspect Apple did this refresh to tide the MacBook over until it is ready for SR.
Click to expand...

He doesnt have the money to buy a MBP, and the graphics card should be fine for some simple video editing using iMovie right? He's not going to want to wait unless i can give him specifics. Even then...Thanks though.
 
Simple video-editing is fine on the Macbook, only thing I would suggest is for him to bump up his RAM to 2gigs. He'll have a much more enjoyable experience with the RAM upgrade :)
 
Dynamyk said:
Simple video-editing is fine on the Macbook, only thing I would suggest is for him to bump up his RAM to 2gigs. He'll have a much more enjoyable experience with the RAM upgrade :)
Click to expand...

Probably, but he's going to just update if he feels the need to. Thanks for all your help.
 
Telp said:
So you don't think that 1 GB is enough?
Click to expand...

I just completed a rather large project in final cut express on a macbook (the old ones before the update) and an external hd. It only had 1 gb or ram, and it worked fine for me. I guess I should mention that prior to that I have always used iMovie '04 on a 733 mhz G4 Quicksilver, which was torture. The macbook was blazing fast in comparison, and the screen is big enough and everything went smoothly.

flopticalcube said:
Some people have found that iMovie crashes more often with only 1GB. I have never had iMovie crash on me. If you can afford the upgrade, its worth it.
Click to expand...

I think iMovie crashes on every machine. I worked in iMovie '06 some on this macbook with 1 gb of RAM and it crashed a few times, but I have never used iMovie on any machine for a project without it ever crashing, so I figure that is just the way iMovie is.

This was a laptop that belonged to my school. With all this said, when I get my macbook for college in a few months, I will likely go for 2 gb of RAM because I plan on running parallels with vista.
 
Alright, well ill be sure to mention this to him. Thanks for all your help guys.
 
MB or wait?

So I am a student and this will probably be my computer update for the next 2-3 years, Is it a time to buy a MB? I don't play video games or do anything drastically intensive on the Graphics card... Photoshop, and Dreamweaver.... Is santa Rosa worth it? Buy?


Thanks
 
ryancarlson912 said:
So I am a student and this will probably be my computer update for the next 2-3 years, Is it a time to buy a MB? I don't play video games or do anything drastically intensive on the Graphics card... Photoshop, and Dreamweaver.... Is santa Rosa worth it? Buy?


Thanks
Click to expand...

hmm. It'll definitely be enough for 2-3 years of college. Unless you can wait 3-4 months for the next revision of the Macbook then I would buy now. Wait..take that back. You might want to wait to see if theyre doing that free ipod w/ the macbook purchase again this year. Last year it was around June5th I think.
 
It's very unlikely Apple will be updating the MacBooks in 3-4 months time considering they have just been updated a day ago.

The current (and previous model for that fact) would do you well for the next few years. Buy it now if you want it you'll get the latest and greatest and for your needs it's perfect.
 
ryancarlson912 said:
So I am a student and this will probably be my computer update for the next 2-3 years, Is it a time to buy a MB? I don't play video games or do anything drastically intensive on the Graphics card... Photoshop, and Dreamweaver.... Is santa Rosa worth it? Buy?


Thanks
Click to expand...

The dedicated video card is needed only for Aperture (?) and Motion, also for some games that require pecific features of the GPU the GMA950 doesnt have like Hardware T&L, or if you want a game to run at acceptable FPS. Other apps do no processing on the grpahics card.
 
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